The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic: A probability-based, nationally representative study of mental health in the U.S. ["mental health crisis of unprecedented scope and scale"]

American Association for the Advancement of Science ^ | 18 Sep 2020 | E. Alison Holman; Rebecca R. Thompson; Dana Rose Garfin;Roxane Cohen Silver

[daniel1212]

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds across the world, the scientific community has focused on understanding the transmission, biology, and treatment of the novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). To date, empirical investigations of the mental health impact of this collective trauma represent less than 3% of the published literature, (1) even though the pandemic, including its associated social and economic fallout, represents a mental health crisis of unprecedented scope and scale. (2) Globally, COVID-19 has left hundreds of millions of people at risk for serious illness or death, (3) isolated in their homes, (4) and without jobs or income. These circumstances place people living with anxiety, depression or other mental health challenges at especially high risk for worsening symptoms and suicide. (2, 5–7)...

previous research demonstrates that exposure to media coverage of collective traumas such as mass violence, (9, 10) infectious disease outbreaks, (11) or natural disasters, (12) may be a double-edged sword that can inform the public while simultaneously amplifying stress symptoms, worry, and perceived risk, with significant implications for public health. (13–15)...

analyses of helpline usage data suggest that stricter lockdown orders were associated with more loneliness, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among German helpline users. (17) However, analysis of GoogleTrends data suggests that stay-at-home orders may have flattened rising distress as the number of distress-related searches in the U.S. plateaued soon after the lockdowns began. (18) At present, little is known about the relative impact of these various exposures–direct, media-driven, or community wide – on individuals’ early pandemic-related psychological responses.

From a methodological perspective, the relatively small body of literature addressing COVID-19-related mental health issues has significant flaws that call into question the validity and utility of the findings...Beginning on March 18, 2020 and across the next 30 days, we conducted a rigorous rapid-response study of three consecutive probability-based, nationally representative cohorts in the U.S. (see Fig. 1)

...

We provide evidence that between March 18th and April 18th, 2020, as the rates of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths increased substantially across the U.S., COVID-19-related acute stress and depressive symptoms increased over time in the U.S. These findings are consistent with studies linking the COVID-19 pandemic with declines in well-being around the globe. (5, 24, 25) Unlike other studies, our unique study design allowed us to examine population-based trends in the early psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded using a large, representative, probability-based national sample on whom pre-pandemic mental and physical health data were available,,

First, results indicate that individuals with pre-existing mental and physical health diagnoses were more likely to exhibit both acute stress and depressive symptoms... Second, secondary stressors – job and/or wage loss, shortages of necessities – were strong predictors of both acute stress and depressive symptoms...

Third, consistent with recent COVID-19 studies, exposure to pandemic-related media coverage was associated with greater pandemic-specific acute stress and depressive symptoms. (2, 14)..

We demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic and the media environment surrounding it are associated with higher acute stress and depressive symptoms in three consecutive, large cross-sectional studies among representative samples of Americans. Importantly, we employed a nuanced approach to conceptualizing media exposure by assessing amount (from varied sources), content (conflicting information), and relative increase/decrease. The many potential downstream public health consequences of this unfolding, ambiguous pandemic stretch far beyond the number of cases and deaths directly due to the novel Coronavirus itself.

[EasySt]

“unintended” by whom?
I’m beginning to think very little of this may be “unintended”.

[Karliner]

It appears all( almost all?) depression, suicides and despair halted in May 2020. I can’t find statistics anywhere but haven’t looked the last three weeks

[daniel1212]

Well, even WaPo provides this on Nov 23, 2020: Rise In Suicides Prompted By Pandemic Is Met With Lack Of U.S. Action

DuPage County has reported a 23 percent rise compared with last year. And in the city itself, the number of suicides among African Americans has far surpassed the total for 2019, even as officials struggle to understand whether the deaths are being driven by the pandemic, racial unrest or both. What has shocked medical examiners in Chicago is the age range — from a 57-year-old deputy police chief to a 9-year-old child. (Wan, 11/23)

Of-course, it focuses on the suicide of a son named "Christian" in so doing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/23/covid-pandemic-rise-suicides/

Also are recent reports as these: https://www.wspa.com/news/state-news/trend-of-concern-suicide-rates-rapidly-rising-for-10-to-14-year-olds-in-south-carolina/

[Karliner]

Thanks for this. These are the buried stats( bad pun intended). RIP all those despairing people.